Latest polling finds Republican primary for governor still a toss up

The most recent polling performed this week for a Democratic PAC shows the GOP field is still bunched up despite negative news stories surfacing this week.

The poll conducted Wednesday and Thursday this week by Public Policy Polling and paid for by the Democratic group Kentucky Family Values PAC shows 3 points separate the top three candidates, with many voters still undecided.

The poll of 501 Republican primary voters finds James Comer leading the pack with 28 percent, Hal Heiner with 27 percent, and Matt Bevin at 25 percent. The survey has a margin or error of +/- of 4.4 percent, placing the top three candidates neck and neck.

The survey left out the fourth entrant into the race: former state Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott.

Public Policy Polling says the results show that 20 percent of voters remain undecided, “and beyond that 43 percent of voters who are currently supporting one of the candidates say they’re open to changing their minds.” That leaves more than half of the field of potential voters persuadable to one candidate or another in the final 12 days.

Beyond the close race the perhaps most interesting takeaway is the lack of effect the persistent story about alleged physical and mental abuse of a college ex against James Comer seem to be playing among voters.

“Comer emerges from this week still having the highest favorability rating of the three candidates. 50% of voters have a positive opinion of him to 25% with a negative one for a +25 spread. Matt Bevin at +24 (48/24) is not far behind with Hal Heiner clearly lagging the field at only +11 with 44% of voters seeing him favorably and 33% unfavorably,” Tom Jensen of PPP wrote.

The other interesting takeaway is those surveyed think Heiner is running the most negative campaign of the three candidates polled by PPP.

Thirty-three percent think Heiner is running negative and only 36 percent believe he is not running a negative campaign. Nineteen percent of respondents believe Comer is running a negative campaign and 17 percent see a negative tilt to Bevin’s campaign.

Nick Storm

Nick Storm is the Anchor and Managing Editor of Pure Politics available exclusively on Spectrum News. Pure Politics is the only nightly program dedicated to Kentucky politics. Nick covers all of the political heavyweights and his investigative work brings to light issues that might otherwise go unnoticed, like his coverage of the backlog of DNA rape kits waiting to be tested in Kentucky. Nick is also working on a feature length bio documentary Outlaw Poet: A documentary on Ron Whitehead. Pure Politics airs weeknight at 7 and 11:30 on Spectrum News. Follow Nick on Twitter @NStorm_Politics. Nick can be reached at 502-792-1107 or nicholas.storm@charter.com.